Tag Archives: Dental Implants Glasgow

Post navigation

Welcome to Louise Hatherall – our latest recruit to the team. Louise is a dental nurse and joins our clinical team to look after our patients in the clinic. She’ll be assisting our dental team of Philip, Elizabeth and Glen during surgical sessions.

Today we had a fantastic day in the clinic looking after a couple of patients with exacting and challenging dental requirements and we were all well prepared, thorough, slick, organised and efficient. That sort of excellent team work produces the results our patients need and we have to deliver. It was a great effort and a pleasure to be part of it alongside my colleagues.

We’re delighted to welcome Stuart McLaren to our team. Stuart who is a medical aesthetics practitioner is available for consultations to offer clients non-surgical facial aesthetic procedures in the clinic. Medical aesthetics involves the use of dermal fillers and botulinum toxin to smooth wrinkles. Doubly qualified – with degrees in dentistry and medicine – Stuart is on the board of The Facial Cosmetic Academy where he’s responsible for the organisation and the running of courses teaching the safe practice of medical aesthetics to doctors, dentists and nurses throughout the UK.

Back in the last century Prime Minister and wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill apparently always carried two spare sets of dentures around – just in case.

It’s reported he had the dentures made to preserve a natural lisp…as well as providing him with the means to eat and function properly.

One of the sets of partial dentures made for him sold at auction last year for more than £15,000 – such is their “historical significance”. Now another set is going under the hammer on Wednesday at Bonhams. Estimates are putting the price at £12,000 but with the previous set nudging higher it’s anyone’s guess what the final sum raised will be at the auction.

It seems that the wartime premier suffered from terrible teeth and gums and needed complicated dentistry from childhood.

Churchill valued so highly the skill of his dentist, Wilfred Fish, who worked with the dental technician who crafted his dentures, that he nominated him for a knighthood.

For today’s patient of course there are many other options available if teeth have been lost either through dental problems or accidents.

Bridgework can make a tremendous difference in “filling gaps” and dental implants are particularly effective at preserving – or restoring – a natural look for a patient’s smile.

Patients who wear dentures can also benefit from implant technology – and in doing so ensure the functionality of their teeth is at its maximum.

I have travelled extensively working with some of the world’s leading experts in the world of implants and by doing so I’m able to offer my patients – and those who are referred to me by other dentists – the most up to date techniques and implant products in order to achieve the best results.

We’ll note with interest to see how much Churchill’s chompers sell for later in the week.

I’ve just watched an interview with the Swedish professor now credited with inventing the medical technology that gave the world dental implants.

In his summation about the work of dentists and how the care of patients is so vitally important, Professor Per-Ingvar Branemark said: “No-one should die lying in the bed having their teeth in the glass.”

How true!

With the technology progressing over the 40 years that dentists have used implants to replace missing teeth today’s patient can have missing teeth replace not only to enhance the smile’s aesthetics but also to restore dental functionality.

The story of Branemark’s work is interesting…

In 1952, he conducted an experiment where he utilised a titanium implant chamber to study blood flow in rabbit bone. At the conclusion of the experiment, when it became time to remove the titanium chambers from the bone, he discovered that the bone had integrated so completely with the implant that the chamber could not be removed. Brånemark called the discovery “osseointegration,” and saw the possibilities for human use.

In dental medicine the implementation of osseointegration started in the mid-1960s as a result of the work of Professor Branemark.

In 1965 Brånemark, who was at the time Professor of Anatomy at the University of Gothenburg, placed dental implants into the first human patient – Gosta Larsson.

This patient had a cleft palate defect and required dental implants to support an obturator. Gosta Larrson died in 2005, with the original implants still in place after 40 years of function.

In the mid-1970s Brånemark entered into a commercial partnership with the Swedish company Bofors to manufacture dental implants and the instrumentation required for their placement. Eventually an offshoot of Bofors, Nobel Pharma, was created to concentrate on this product line. Nobel Pharma subsequently became Nobel Biocare (a company which supplies our clinic with implants and with which I’ve done a lot of research work).

Brånemark spent almost 30 years fighting the scientific community for acceptance of osseointegration as a viable treatment. In Sweden he was often openly ridiculed at scientific conferences. His university stopped funding for his research, forcing him to open a private clinic to continue the treatment of patients. Eventually an emerging breed of young academics started to notice the work being performed in Sweden. Toronto’s Professor Zarb, in particular, was instrumental in bringing the concept of osseointegration to the wider world. The 1983 Toronto Conference is generally considered to be the turning point, when finally the worldwide scientific community accepted Brånemark’s work. Today osseointegration is a highly predictable and commonplace treatment.

Please contact us here at the clinic if you’d like to find out more about dental implants and how they could work for you.

A couple of months ago at a charity auction I successfully bid for two weeks of being showcased on one of the country’s biggest electronic billboards – right here in the heart of Glasgow.

The ‘ad’ went live on Monday and for two weeks, info about the clinic will be seen by an estimated 3.5 million people! Quite an amazing thought – a figure equivalent to half the population of Scotland!

Utilising the technology behind such iconic landmarks as that of Time Square and Piccadilly Circus, CityScreen is without doubt the premier solus advertising site in the UK.

From a location perspective, Forrest Outdoor Media could not have been blessed with a better site. Renfield Street, leading onto Union Street, represents the main artery running through Glasgow City Centre and delivers a foot-fall in excess of 1.75 Million people per week. In addition to this, the sheer physicality of Renfield Street, as a long ‘straight’ stretch of road, comprising 7 sets of traffic lights, means it can take in excess of 10 minutes before both traffic and pedestrian alike to reach the City Screen site – providing a highly captive audience.

We’ve sponsored the football team at Our Lady of the Missions Primary School in Giffnock.
Our logo will be displayed on the team’s new strips and we wish them lots of success in their forthcoming fixtures.
When we do the ‘official presentation’ we’ll share the photographs with everyone.

Boffins have devised some technical wizardry using digital sounds methods to cancel out the sound of the dentist’s drill.
This, they hope, will help patients overcome any fear or dislike of the drill noise. Will be interesting to see the finished product. See the article by clicking the link below…
We’ve taken that whole topic into account when we devised the new clinic and have installed a sophisticated music and entertainment system aimed at helping our patients.
While in the chair our patients can watch a DVD movie of their choice, tune into a TV show or even bring along their own iPod so the music selection can help soothe them.
We hope the combination of our relaxed, welcoming environment with some self-selected entertainment gives our patients the best possible experience while we look after their dental needs.

The whole team here wishes everyone – patients, web visitors, business associates, neighbours, friends etc – a very healthy and prosperous new year when it dawns.

We continue to offer first-class general dentistry as well as cosmetic dentistry treatments – including whitening, veneers, crowns, bridge work and life-changing dental implants – so if you’re looking to boost your smile factor for the year ahead, please pop in and see us for a consultation.